GARY CRUZ, PH.D.
ASSIST: Strengthening Engineering Faculty through Diversity-Serving Professi...
NSF Awards: 1548322
2018 (see original presentation & discussion)
Graduate, Adult learners
ASSIST is contributing to increasing the diversification of the engineering professorate. The project’s objective is being accomplished by engaging diverse early-career faculty, post-doctorial professionals, and graduate students through a collaboration of the leading national diversity-serving professional organizations supporting engineering. This engagement supports the participants’ professional development and the expansion of their informal professional networks to include diverse colleagues.
The ASSIST project is vital and historic because it brought together the seven largest national diversity-serving professional organizations to form a collaborative research partnership to proactively address the lack of diversity in engineering education. These partners, in alphabetic order, include the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), Great Minds in STEM (GMiS), Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE). This video will focus on professional development opportunities delivered by Great Minds in STEM at the annual HENAAC conferences over the past two years, including best practices and lessons learned.
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Barbara Berns
Education Planner
Terrific that there is finally a comprehensive effort to tackle these issues head-on. I am wondering how the partnership among the seven large organizations is actually operationalized. The core of this initiative seems to be the large-scale conference. How are the participants' involved in the planning of the conference? Have you been able to extend the networking activities and the issues-sessions beyond the actual conference (always a challenge)? Are you tracking the engagement of participants in NSF over time-as proposal readers, proposal submitters, etc.
If you haven't already, I would suggest you talk to the folks at CADRE (cadre.org) who have experience in running an NSF capacity building fellowship for early career STEM education researchers and developers. Some of their successes (and failures!) might be useful. Full disclosure: In my prior life, I was PI of CADRE and developer of the fellowship program.
Gary Cruz, Ph.D.
Director, Academic Affairs and University Relations
HI Barbara. Thank you for the recommendation to connect with CADRE and its resources regarding the CAREER Award to better engage our future faculty along a successful competitive pathway for this award.
Regarding our research collaborative, we have both a Strategy Team and an Operation Teams, with representation from the leadership of all seven organizations on these teams to drive the efforts of the collaborative. Each organization hosts their own ASSIST track for early-career faculty at their national conferences. The content of these tracks have both similar topics that cut across all the organization as well as unique topics of discussion salient to the attendees of the organization. This allows for each organization to present topics in their own cultural context and relevancy.
After the events, each organization provides handouts, agendas, speaker bios, session recording on the LEVERAGE portal so other registrants in the portal can gain access to the content. As part of the evaluation process, yes, the mobility and academic portfolio of the participants are assessed.
Courtney Tanenbaum
Principal Researcher
This focus on creating a network and community of support is so critical! I love the focus of this project. I'm curious about what lessons you have learned over the course of implementing this work. For other organizations and communities interested in better supporting underrepresented groups of individuals as they transition out of STEM degree programs and into careers, what can you share that can help their developing efforts? What guidance or advice would you provide?
Gary Cruz, Ph.D.
Director, Academic Affairs and University Relations
Hi Courtney. The advice to others working with individuals from traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM transitioning in their career pathway is the importance of mentorship to really navigate the tenure-track process. What our initiative has created is a forum where future faculty and early-career faculty from these groups no longer feel as isolated working in an institution where they are still significantly underrepresented. ASSIST has created a network of support where the functionality of that support is driven by the very existence of a captive audience that has been created. The connectiveness both to each other and to a larger entity - NSF - helps to bridge barriers of isolation and access on a STEM mobility pathway.
Courtney Tanenbaum
Courtney Tanenbaum
Principal Researcher
Thank you for sharing! The issue of isolation and access is so important to address and I love that you are raising awareness about this issue!
Barbara Berns
Education Planner
Gary thanks for the detailed response to my comments above. Early career scholars, researchers and developers could have benefited from your effort in the past. I LOVE what you're doing, and will follow it over time.
Kelly Riedinger
Senior Researcher
I enjoyed watching your video and thank you for sharing your work. The ASSIST program sounds like a wonderful opportunity for supporting early career engineering faculty. What kind of evidence do you collect to understand the success or impacts of the model? The graphic in the video helped to illustrate the ASSIST model and I'm curious, are you conducting any type of network analysis to understand the evolution of the network or structures, connections, etc. that develop as a result of the CoP?
Rebecca Batchelor
Thank you for sharing your program - this sounds like an excellent program for supporting early career faculty in engineering, and I really like the way you've engaged this group of professional societies. I am a PI of an NSF-funded program called Sparks for Change (https://scied.ucar.edu/soars/sparks) which is aimed at supporting diverse early career faculty in the geosciences, and I certainly see some overlap in what we're doing and learning. I'm wondering what your research and experience is showing you to be the most valuable part(s) of your program? I also wonder what you are doing to keep your participants connected and engaged beyond the workshops?
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.